The Del Norte wrestling team had a few more grapplers available in Fortuna than in recent duals, but it still wasn’t quite enough to overcome Fortuna on the road on Wednesday at the Huskies grabbed a 47-32 victory over the Warriors.

“It came right down to the last match of the night,” said Del Norte assistant coach Nick Watson. “We went out and wrestled tough. There were a lot of close matches. They just caught us at a couple weight classes and the cards didn’t fall our way.”

he Tsunami All-Starz youth level 2 cheerleading team, coached by Nicole Soule (Wanner), charged all the way from third to first in their division with a great performance on the last day of competition in the American Masterpiece cheerleading competition in San Jose on Jan. 24-25. TOP LEFT TO RIGHT: Isabella Arriola, Teagan Diaz and Alyssa Calvio. BOTTOM LEFT TO RIGHT: Jaclyn Young, Haley Patapoff-Pruitt, River Wise, Caleh King, Caleb Dodson, Taylor White, Kaylee Eiserich, Naquel Benites and Ciera Brooks. Photo submitted

Tsunami All-Starz beat out much bigger gyms in route to youth level two national championship

When the awards show started at the American Masterpiece cheerleading competition in San Jose on Jan. 25, the Tsunami All-Starz youth 2 team had no idea what to expect.

The youth 2 team, comprised of Del Norters between 6 and 12 years old, finished the first day of competition in third place, according to the judges, and the coaches and cheerleaders on the team were all hoping for second place at best when the final results were read.

“They called the top three teams up to the stage, and I thought, ‘Okay we got third place. That is good enough,’” recounted All-Starz cheerleader Jaclyn Young. “Then they called the third place team, and I thought, ‘We got second.’ But then they called second, and we all started jumping up and down and crying. It was really fun.”

It was probably one of the worst weekends of the year for the Del Norte wrestling team to compete in a dual tournament when the Warriors traveled to Central Point, Ore., for the Crater Classic Duals on Saturday.

Although the Warriors have been light on numbers over the course of the season, on Saturday Del Norte had to go without several grapplers that caught the flu bug last week and several more that are sitting out with various injuries. That left a season-low eight wrestlers to fill the 14 weight classes for Del Norte, and by the end of the tournament that number was down to seven.

Low flows and clear water on local rivers have fishermen once again awaiting the arrival of rain

Although most of the out-of-town anglers that clogged up the Chetco and Smith Rivers last week have moved on to other rivers, fishing has still been slow on both the Chetco and Smith rivers over the past week as persistent dry conditions have made it tough to hook many steelhead.

Chetco River

Although both the Chetco and Smith rivers are running low this week, the Chetco River has been in a little bit better shape than its Del Norte counterpart.

Warriors drop to second place with 61-45 road loss in Arcata Friday night

The Del Norte boys basketball team struggled at the beginning and end of the game in Arcata on Friday and left with a 61-45 loss in a matchup of the top two teams in the Humboldt-Del Norte Big 5 at the halfway point of league play.

The Warriors struggled coming out of the gates as they made just one field goal in the first quarter en route to a 16-6 deficit.

Warriors fall 48-41 to the Tigers on the road to open 2nd half of HDN play

The Del Norte girls basketball team got off to a strong start in Arcata, but the home team took over in the second half and the Warriors fell 48-41 on the road to kick of the second half off the Humboldt-Del Norte Big 5 season.

The Warriors fought to a 10-9 lead by the end of the first quarter and held a 26-23 advantage at halftime, but the Tigers turned the tabled on Del Norte in the second half.

“We played really well in the first two quarters, but in the second half we kind of fell apart a little bit,” said Del Norte head coach Jeff Cook. “We kept the game close, but we couldn’t get in any rhythm.”

In 1980, the year that I came back to Del Norte High School as a coach, the Warriors also hired another teacher and coach — Pablo Lorenzi.

Pablo, who was a recent graduate of California Lutheran College, became a Warrior. Now 35 years later, he is still coaching at the high school even though he is retired. Pablo and his wife, Debbie, are still putting championship girls volleyball teams on the court for fans to cheer for.

During Buck Pierce’s nine-year career as a quarterback he fell in love with the Canadian Football League and its fans while being voted the toughest player in the league twice. Photo courtesy of Winnipeg Blue Bombers

Blackburn sounds off on his relationship with Buck, shares a firsthand account of the QB’s career

After 33 years of teaching and coaching and 28 years of broadcasting football and basketball, I feel blessed in getting to know hundreds of student athletes — boys and girls. These experiences have stayed with me over these many years and I treasure the memories. My relationships with many of these outstanding young people have continued in my later years.

One such relationship that has continued is with Buck Pierce and his parents Tim and Connie Pierce, who still live in Crescent City.

The Del Norte wrestling team was forced to leave four weight classes open on Wednesday in Fortuna, but the Warriors did almost everything else perfectly in a dominating 51-30 victory over the Huskies.

Due to some illness, injuries and just having a small team this year, Del Norte was forced to forfeit matches at 106, 128, 182 and 195 pounds. The Warriors got half of those points back when Roberto Aguilar and Andru Botelho both won by forfeit at 220 pounds and heavyweight.

Sophomore Colson Turner, pictured on Jan. 14 in Del Norte’s dual against Eureka, came away from the Eureka Tournament this weekend with a seventh-place finish to help the shorthanded Warrior wrestling team finish seventh out of 24 teams on Saturday. Del Norte Triplicate file photo

Warriors wrestle way to seventh place, despite leaving several top wrestlers home with sickness

The Del Norte wrestling team is used to entering competition shorthanded this season, but Saturday’s trip south to the Eureka Tournament was the smallest Warrior squad yet this season as the team battled sickness and injuries.

Still, Del Norte was able to place three of the six varsity wrestlers that finished the tournament and ended up seventh overall out of 24 teams in attendance.

“There were quite a few schools there and it was good competition,” said Del Norte head coach Aaron Schaad. “The kids enjoyed themselves and I was happy with the way the kids performed. We beat a few kids that we shouldn’t have beat, and the matches that we lost were close matches. I think we won some matches on conditioning too, so that means our lungs are getting better.”